From Grandpa to Emmett to Trayvon, the trajectory of lynching history has shifted over time in America. When Grandpa was killed in 1916, there was no charges brought and no trial. In 1955, Emmett Till’s murder, there was a trial, but no convictions. And then Trayvon Martin, now you have a trial and not-guilty verdict. All the time you have dead black bodies and nobody is ever convicted for the murders. —Doria Dee Johnson

When Doria Dee Johnson was growing up, a large photo of her great-great- grandfather Anthony Crawford hung above her aunt’s dinner table. Her family would say, “Walk with a sense of pride,” because Grandpa Crawford, as the family called him, defended himself up until his last moments. 

A successful businessman and landowner, Mr. Crawford was lynched in Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1916 after disagreeing with a white store owner over the price of cottonseed that Mr. Crawford brought to the market. His last words were, “I thought I was a good citizen. Give my bankbook to my children.” Following the lynching, the Crawford family fled the South in fear for their lives, leaving behind their 427 acres of prime cotton land.

Ms. Johnson explains that upon visiting the land her family was forced to give up, she felt compelled to become an activist and historian. Today, she is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where her focus is the migration of African Americans from the South to Evanston, Illinois, during the Great Migration. On the one hundredth anniversary of her great-great-grandfather’s lynching, Ms. Johnson, along with two hundred of her family members and the Equal Justice Initiative, erected a memorial to Anthony Crawford in Abbeville. “The story has been denied for so long,” Ms. Johnson said. “But now, if you go to Abbeville City Hall to do business, you have to walk right past Anthony Crawford to do it. You can’t bypass him anymore.”

Click here to hear her story, and explore The Legacy of Lynching at the Brooklyn Museum now through September 3.

Ernest Everett Just was born in 1883, earned a BA at Dartmouth in 1907, and immediately took a position teaching literature at Howard University. While at Howard he made the acquaintance of Professor Frank Lillie, who encouraged him to pursue advanced degrees at the University of Chicago. Lillie, a future Dean of the Biological Sciences Division, was closely involved in the establishment of the marine biology center in Massachusetts known as Woods Hole, and he and colleagues like Warder Clyde Allee involved African American students in research there even when securing their enrollment in courses of study was impossible.

Just began work with Lillie at Woods Hole but enrolled at the University of Chicago in absentia in 1911. He completed his PhD in zoology in 1916. Lillie supported Just throughout his career in pursuing research funds and opportunities beyond what his employer, Howard University, could provide. The two men maintained a life-long friendship.

During his dissertation research, Just made an important discovery about cell cleavage; his most important publication was The Biology of the Cell Surface (1939).

Embittered by American race relations, Just spent the 1930s in Europe, returning to America as Europe headed to war. He died in New Jersey in 1941.

Text and images from our web exhibit, Integrating the Life of the Mind: African-Americans at the University of Chicago, 1870-1940

Jason Reynolds recently spoke at the National Conference of African American Librarians! Check out this piece on his session.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, black women were at the forefront of Civil Rights struggles in the United States. However, in the fight against racism, their efforts to address the concerns and oppressions specific to black women were frequently dismissed by their male counterparts as divisive and secondary to the larger struggle. Simultaneously, they were often suspicious of the mainstream Feminist Movement, since its primarily white, middle-class membership was largely blind to its own racial biases and class privilege. Queer, transgendered and disabled women were even further sidelined.

In response, black women developed their own ways of fighting gender inequity and racism creating a number of organizations and they differentiated themselves from the mainstream Feminist Movement through language, with some black women identifying as womanists. Coined by Alice Walker in 1983—and defined as “a black feminist or feminist of color… committed to [the] survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female"—the term allowed black women to underscore their own unique priorities for a new social order.

Tune in to our Livestream Thursday, May 25 at 7:30pm (EST) for an intimate lecture inspired by Alice Walker’s work and our current exhibition We Wanted a Revolution

05/24/17

UNIVERSITY PARTNERS WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO PRESERVE CULTURAL HISTORY

Listen here! 

The first time Tabria felt like the object of a man’s fetish, she was a senior in high school.

Hear her story, as well as a conversation with New York Magazine’s Maureen O’Connor, in this episode of “Other: Mixed Race in America.”

New episodes of “Other: Mixed Race in America” will publish every day for a week, starting May 1. Subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts or RadioPublic.

Read about Sarah Barron, another Jewish woman striker, over at the JMM blog!

04/20/17

George Takei, Star Trek’s Hikaru Sulu, turns 80

Coming Back Home: The Meggett Family & Their Slave Cabin

Emily Hutchinson Meggett (far left), 85, and Isabell Meggett Lucas (second from far left), 87, two matriarchs of the Meggett family of South Carolina, were among 21 Edisto Island residents who visited the our Museum for the first time yesterday, April 10. Lucas was born in the Edisto Island slave cabin, which is prominently featured in the Slavery and Freedom exhibition in the Museum. Her sister-in-law, Meggett, grew up in a cabin nearby. The cabin is prominently displayed in the history galleries of the Museum and is believed to be one of the oldest preserved slave cabins in the United States.The two-room wood cabin dates to the 1850s, and members of the Meggett family inhabited the cabin until as recently as the 1980s. Meggett is the wife of the deceased Jessie Meggett, who grew up in this former slave cabin in South Carolina. Several generations of the Meggett family joined the 87-year-old to view the cabin exhibit for the first time.

The Meggett Family slave cabin stood on Edisto Island from 1851 to 2013. During their tour, they shared memories of growing up in the house and playing on the land that was once a plantation.

Several generations of the Meggett Family were greeted by our co-curator of the Slavery and Freedom exhibition Nancy Bercaw, digital archivists, and staff.

“We are delighted to host the Meggett family at the Museum,” said Nancy Bercaw, co-curator of the Slavery and Freedom exhibition. “This is a milestone in the life of the Museum—being able to truly humanize an object on display; this cabin is more than a cabin; it is a home. While the current exhibition features the cabin as it was used during the period of slavery and emancipation, we see the cabin as a living object that holds hundreds of truly moving stories about the people who lived in it from 1853 to 1981. Having this cabin on view is a powerful way for Museum visitors to learn about the Meggetts and other families who lived on Edisto in the 20th century.”

Photo:The Meggett Family brought photos to add to our collection. They explained their family tree and highlighted artifacts connected to the slave cabin.

Once out of the galleries, the Meggett Family went to the Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center, on our 2nd floor, to share their family’s memorabilia in connection to the slave cabin and oral histories.  The Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center is a space where you can delve into digital resources related to family history and learn how to preserve your own family photographs, documents, and heirlooms.

While being interviewed, two elders of Meggett Family shared that they didn’t know that they were growing up in a slave cabin when they were children and that slavery was rarely spoken of by their loved ones.  

“All of us living in there (in the Meggett family row of cabins), we were all together—like family,” Meggett said. “We played together, ate together; the kids, we would fight together, learn together.…We never talked about slavery. We never talked about being poor. And we never went to bed hungry.”

Our Museum Founding Director Lonnie G. Bunch III also met with Isabell Meggett Lucas of the Meggett Family, thanking her and her family for their contribution to our Slavery & Freedom gallery.

“It was so exciting, so exciting,” Lucas said. “I never thought I’d see a house that I lived in be in a Museum…not in my lifetime. People can look at that house and the pictures around it and know that everything didn’t come easy back then.”

The Meggett Family slave cabin remains a powerful symbol in our Slavery & Freedom gallery and highlights the transition to freedom after emancipation. 

Mary Blair is an American artist, animator, and designer best known for her prominent role in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company. Blair drew concept art and character designs for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Song of the South, Dumbo, Lady and The Tramp, and Fantasia. In 1941, Blair travelled to several South American countries with Walt Disney and other artists on a research tour. The watercolors she painted on this trip lead Disney to assign her as an art supervisor on the films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. Prior to joining The Walt Disney Company in 1940, she became a member of the California School of Watercolor and was known for being an imaginative colorist and designer. Blair resigned from Disney in 1953 and began her new career as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She worked on large advertising campaigns, illustrated several Little Golden Books, and even designed theatrical sets for Radio City Music Hall. Several of her illustrated children’s books from the 1950s remain in print to this day, such as I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. Posthumously, Blair was inducted into the prestigious group of Disney Legends in 1991 and received the Windsor McCay Award from ASIFA-Hollywood in 1996. 

Meet Vaqueras (Cowgirls) from Arizona, early 1900’s. The photo comes from the Ocampo Family Photograph Collection. Can you identify the women?

World War 1 Social Media Day: Serving in Segregated Forces

Museums, archives, and other educational institutions around the world will share a day of social media activity focused on World War I history. Follow us on social media tomorrow, April 11, 2017. Our experts and educators will be online to answer questions and take you behind the scenes. 

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)

Portrait of contralto Marian Anderson. Stamped on back: “S. Hurok presents Marian Anderson. Hurok Attractions, 730 Fifth Avenue, N.Y. 19, N.Y., Martin Feinstein, Publicity Director, Michael Sweeley, Associate. Phone: Circle 5-0500.”

Papago Individual and Family Census Cards, 1937

Today’s post comes to us from one of our archives technicians, Stephanie, who is working on processing records from Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sells Agency. 

 While working on processing a series from the Sells Agency, which oversaw the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation (then known as the Papago Reservation) in Southern Arizona, I came across previous termite damage ranging in severity from minor to extreme.  The group of records included both family and individual census index cards which were created in preparation for the 1940 census.  I placed the damaged cards carefully in protective Mylar sleeves for preservation purposes and filed them alphabetically by surname back into the collection accordingly.   

Figure 1:  This particular series of census index cards is arranged alphabetically by surname.  Archival tabs are included to aid in the retrieval of information. 

These vital index cards detail information that provides a snapshot of life in the late 1930s.  Some of the cards were handwritten and include notes. Information that was recorded included: first and last names, maiden names, name variations, family relationships and heads of households, marital status, occupation, wages and earnings, language(s) spoken, level of education, degree of Indian blood, tribe, residence, age or year of birth, sex, date of death, cause of death, as well as a census identification number.  

Figure 2:  This index card is a good example of the result of previous termite damage.  It was placed in a sized Mylar sleeve for preservation.  This image also presents what information can be lost due to damaged, or improperly stored, records.

These aren’t the only census cards in our holdings of the National Archives at Riverside.  To name a few other series from the same record group, we also hold census cards from the Pima Agency, the Mission Agency, as well as the Navajo Area Office.  In fact, census index cards just from Record Group 75 in our holdings total 41.08 linear feet!  We are currently working on processing even more series and improving access to the valuable historical information these cards provide.  

Figure 3:  This one handwritten index card holds a wealth of information.  Mary Jesus (married name: Ramon) was born in 1883, lived in Sells at the time this information was recorded, was married to Jose Ramon, was a grandmother, and was a basketmaker.

We hope you enjoy our behind-the-scenes posts that show a bit of what goes into archival processing and what interesting treasures we find here at the National Archives at Riverside.  Visit us today to explore and uncover these documents of the past that record our collective history.  

Series:  Individual and Family Census Cards, 1937 (NAID 49712909)  Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793-1999.

“Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” opens on Saturday!!!!!

It’s the first major exhibition celebrating the life and work of the celebrated author, and it will feature approximately 100 items from Butler’s literary archive, which came to The Huntington in 2008. The exhibition will be on view April 8–Aug. 7, 2017, in the West Hall of the Library.

For a preview of the show (and a few more sneak peek images), head to VERSO!

images: Author Octavia E. Butler, 1986. Photo by Patti Perret. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

A page of Butler’s motivational notes, ca. 1975. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Copyright Estate of Octavia E. Butler.